Well, you're certainly entitled to your opinion. However, I didn't mention a particular material. It's still my opinion that natural materials have better movement than synthetics. There may be exceptions, but I've yet to find one. Of course, that's just my opinion. Any material, natural or synthetic needs to be selected properly for the application it's being used for, and that includes bucktail since you mentioned it.

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Remember, no one likes to be behind the big truck, but that's better than being under it!

:Totally agree with Jim. How you select your materials is key. As well as how you use them. One of my favorite all time streamers combines both synthtic and natural material and it moves as real as it gets. Flashabou and Bucktail for me is like cookies and milk!

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I like Buck Tail because it doesn't get tangled around the hook. At least it tends not to. I still does sometimes.

I use Clousers more than any other fly. I go through a pile of them every year. I also fish a lot of snaggy spots. Clousers will still hang up. One nice thing about using a spey rod is I can generally cast well past the snag and then with the line laying on the water pull the fly off the snag away from me. I save a lot of them that way. It doesn't save them all. I started tying them on #2 Aberdeen hooks and bend the eyes down in my vice. The wire is soft enough I can pull them loose most of the time when casting past them didn't work. They also don't bend out on a fish. I have landed very big fish on them and have yet to loose a fish because of it.

I have also found that to much flash does not seem to help either. I also tie a bunch of them with glow in the dark flashaboo mixed in with the white Buck Tail in the bottom half of the fly. It does not change the look of the fly during the day and I get a lot of fish on them in the dark.

I also put head cement on the ends of the Buck Tail as soon as I get a few wraps on the top half and then do the head. It drives the cement into the hair and makes them more durable. I also put head cement up past the thread into the hair, but I use the thread in the bobbin after I whip finish it and cut it off to do a few wraps around the body so when the cement is drying it holds the hair down where it should go. If it still has a bit of flair to it you can hold it eye up in as hot water as you can stand to have your fingers in. It will give it a good minnow shape. Then put it in between a couple of layers of towel or paper towel and keeping the shape you want put something on it to hold it there till it dries. It will keep that shape.

I also paint my own eyes with ProTech powder paint. If I'm feeling really frisky I even do them one half at a time so the center remains paint free then hang them with a bit of wire and bake them in the oven. The paint becomes almost bullet proof that way. I don't do it most of the time but it does work really well. Again just for the durability. I do the black pupils with a tooth pick and black model paint.

One last trick I do is to use 140 white Ultra Thread. Between doing the head with cement already on it, and then the finish cement it becomes transparent enough for the head to match both the top and bottom of the fly.

Just want to add that there are not a lot of fish species I don't think you can catch on a Blue/White Clouser.

I just finished tying up a mess of bucktail Clousers for an up coming trip to brook trout country.
While I don't use Clousers in the salt, tie them for trout. How weird is that !
The plan was to tie traditional brook trout streamers like black ghosts and Mickyfinns Clouser style, but ended up tying most with sparse blended colors to (hopefully) better match the rainbow smelt "hatch".

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The simpler the outfit, the more skill it takes to manage it, and the more pleasure one gets in his achievements.” --- Horace Kephart

I likely use Clousers more than anything else also, from 7-8" long tied with bucktail for Striped Bass, down to some tied on size 8 Aberdeens tied with finer hairs for panfish. Have tied them 10-12" long using Yak hair too, but not my favorite way to use Yak.

Tie some with synthetics too, and combination of natural & synthetic materials.

Time & place for everything. Clousers work well whatever you choose to tie them with.

Dan, I've played with powder coating eyes too, but a bit too tedious for me. I agree it works well if you have the patience for it, I end up dropping too many of them down in the powder, even with forceps. I prefer stick-on eyes or regular paints & an epoxy over coating, or on the smaller flies a coat or 2 of Sally Hansens.

Rip, that is odd! I would think you would use them regularly in the salt!

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Remember, no one likes to be behind the big truck, but that's better than being under it!

down to some tied on size 8 Aberdeens ......
Dan, I've played with powder coating eyes too, but a bit too tedious for me. I agree it works well if you have the patience for it, I end up dropping too many of them down in the powder, even with forceps.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one using Aberdeen hooks. When I do the eyes, I use a piece of wire bent in a U. I make the U tight enough to keep the eyes from slipping around and hold both ends of the U in a pair of needle nose pliers. I do a count when I heat them over a candle because guessing can end with a blob of melted lead in places you don't want a blob of molten lead.